Thus speaking, while her thoughts past actions trace, And call to mind, admonish’d by the place, Sharp at her utmost ken she cast her eyes, And somewhat floating from afar descries: It seem’d a corpse adrift to distant sight, But at a distance who could judge aright? It wafted nearer yet, and then she knew That what before she but surmised was true: A corpse it was, but whose it was unknown; Yet moved, howe’er, she made the case her own, Took the bad omen of a shipwreck’d man, As for a stranger wept, and thus began: